What’s Going On With Amazon Reviews?

Yesterday, I received a deluge of emails from worried friends. The reason? This update on Amazon reviews, posted on Amazon’s blog by Chee Chew, VP of Customer Experience. It announced how so-called ‘incentivized reviews‘ – i.e. reviews in exchange for free stuff – are now prohibited:

“Our community guidelines have always prohibited compensation for reviews, with an exception – reviewers could post a review in exchange for a free or discounted product as long as they disclosed that fact. These so-called ‘incentivized reviews’ make up only a tiny fraction of the tens of millions of reviews on Amazon, and when done carefully, they can be helpful to customers by providing a foundation of reviews for new or less well-known products.

Today, we updated the community guidelines to prohibit incentivized reviews unless they are facilitated through the Amazon Vine program.

Mercifully, it turns out that my worried friends had missed the crucial last paragraph in the post:

“The above changes will apply to product categories other than books. We will continue to allow the age-old practice of providing advance review copies of books.”

How does this affect you?

Well, it doesn’t – not directly, anyway. However, given Amazon’s constant tinkering with reviews, and its aversion to paid ones, it’s best if you avoid the standard phrasing “I received a free copy in exchange for a review” when writing your review. My suggestion is that you use instead something like:

“I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader’s Copy of this book”

“I was provided a pre-publication copy of this book by the publisher for review purposes”

Basically, make sure it’s clear that no exchange (monetary or otherwise) took place, and that your review is honest and voluntary. Which, I hope, is always the case anyway.

Also, be careful in the wording when sending out notices to your ARC lists, making sure that it doesn’t sound that you’re “requiring” a review but rather that you’re “hoping” for one.

There is a section for editorial reviews, at least it use to be there, that the author can insert and they sometimes have a lot of influence on readers. I’ve used it on a few books when I solicit reviews and the reviewer can’t put their thoughts in the normal review area.

The statement about this change not applying to books is followed by the statement about ARC’s. Not all free books are given as ARCs. Some are offered for review during review promotions or other activities specific to reviews. Authors often give free copies to bloggers in exchange for a review. So before it’s concluded that this rule doesn’t apply to any free-book-for-review exchanges, people need to get clarification from Amazon. Otherwise, reviews tagged with “received a free copy in exchange for a review” might well be removed, since the date of publication easily identifies whether or not a book is recently published.

You’re right. Not all free books are given as ARCs. For example, readers downloading a book during its KDP Select free days still count as Verified Purchases. It’s a fine line, and sometimes it feels as if it’s drawn in the sand 🙂

At least if you purchase or are sent a book from Amazon.com by an author and you live in another country you will get an email from Amazon.com asking for a rating. That’s a major improvement.

Now – can they track gift certificates? If one sends a gift certificate to a reader, they buy your book in exchange for a review,, can Amazon tell it is a ‘paid’ review if there is no disclosure? The author gets the royalty, so I think they probably can.

When Kobo reviews disappeared with no timeline for their return one of the Kobo CS people did say that anyone can post a review. Example, If you got the book from the library, you can post a review. Kobo v Amazon – both ends of the spectrum.

I noticed the “doesn’t apply to books” caveat on the swarm of posts so I wasn’t too worried. I thought Amazon wanted the “I received this book for an honest review.” Now it appears that wording is no longer acceptable. It’s getting harder and harder to get reviews after a book is published. *Sigh*

It’s helpful to know what is happening and read various perspectives in the comments, thank you all!
For me, the bottom line has always been that people enjoy my books first and foremost. If they do and go the extra mile to post a review I am deeply thankful. If they don’t post one, I understand and appreciate the time they took to read my work.

Well, this post was a roller coaster! First I was panicking because I thought they’d be taking down some of my reviews, then you flipped it 180 and I felt the light returning to my life. Thanks for the heads-up — I myself have posted a few reviews that started with the “I received a free copy …” line, so I’ll be careful not to do that from now on. Also, congrats on your fourth short story collection! I’m off to reblog that happy announcement now 🙂

Thanks, Nicholas. I had heard about this yesterday, along with the fact that ARCs are still allowed for review, but I really appreciate your two alternatives to “I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.” I hadn’t thought about that and I think it may make a difference in the future.

This still seems to have an adverse affect on authors who participated in various review groups–AFTER their book was published. I’m not talking reciprocal reviews, but a process where one person selects a books to review (and gets a free copy from the author), and then that person can place his/her book for review. It’s getting even tougher for indies to get reviews.

As a Vine reviewer, I used to be inundated with emails (95% of them from China) asking for reviews in exchange for free or heavily discounted products. These ranged from LED bulbs, to Ladies’ Shoes. I recently had to remove my email address from my Amazon profile, and alter my reviewer name. I can understand why Amazon have done this, as the amount of 5-Star reviews in exchange for free goods was increasing.
However, I am pleased to hear that advance and sample book copies are exempt. That said, I have a feeling that you should ‘make hay while the sun shines’ in that regard.
Best wishes, Pete.

Unfortunately it doesn’t eliminate rogue reviewers as they’ll still be able to post reviews for items, they could just say it was a gift. I’ve heard from some book bloggers that they can’t get their reviews on amazon US as they’re being flagged. Maybe it’s the wording of their reviews with words like ‘free’ being used, but it’s also a worry that if the new program is a great success amazon might one day create a similar vine only type reviews for books :(.
I also can’t post in the US anymore because of that credit/debit card rule 🙁

Actually I was one of the non vine reviewers in the UK who was getting equal amounts of junk thrown my way. However a few sellers were not Chinese and indie sellers with a brand new product they had created, reviewers like me were giving out honest reviews (and I have had to score some very poor quality items with low marks). The number of 5 star reviews was increasing because of coupon clubs and people joining them, the ban won’t stop unscrupulous sellers and reviewers from reviewing, it will stop many but it also stops those of us who flagged unknown branded products as defective or dangerous. The problem with vine only is that yes amazon had to do something but vine costs sellers money to join, that’s what I hope doesn’t happen with books.
As for the problem being less prevalent with books. I think it is, but I was speaking with an author back in April where he referred me to a thread in the kdp forum, (I don’t have an account there, just visited 🙂 ) and some author was spouting about how he got so many 5 star reviews. On his book you could see 5 star reviews coming in ever half hour throughout the day, no bad reviews and this was on the launch day. There are some dodgy authors out there too, my worry is that to clean up that problem amazon might end up creating a similar vine only program for authors to join in the future. It nets amazon a profit so why not? :/

Sorry for taking up so much in a comment. lol I’ve been debating this with other top reviewers and even wrote about the situation on my blog on Tuesday. 🙂

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